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A family tragedy unfolded Tuesday night as a husband and wife died in a murder suicide in Park Rapids. Police said Gregory Duane Anderson, 45, shot his wife Dawn at their home on Birch Briar Lane, then turned a high powered rifle on himself. Both bodies were found on the front porch. Police Chief Terry Eilers said the couple's youngest son was in the home at the time and was threatened also. The young man ran for help screaming to the neighbors. "He heard shots and turned around to see his mother in the doorway," Eilers said. Numerous officers converged on the scene; Eilers said t

Hubbard County is in line to get 15 inches of snow, preceded by a layer of freezing rain. "With this storm system moving across the Plains rain will be heading into Park Rapids," said National Weather Service meteorologist Geoff Grochocinski.

If the clouds clear away tonight, Hubbard County skywatchers will see a "perigee moon"- the biggest in almost 20 years. According to NASA, the last one occurred in March 1933 when the moon's or-bit brought it the closest to planet Earth. According to NASA: "Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon's orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee. Nearby perigee moons are about 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon's orbit.

The Hubbard County board voted 4-1 Wednesday to authorize the filing of an appeal in an environmental case it lost last month. District Judge Paul Rasmussen ruled against Hubbard County's Board of Adjustment, which granted a variance for a Fifth Crow Wing resort converting to a Planned Unit Development. The variance board had allowed the PUD to have eight more dock slips than the ordnance allowed. Rasmussen ruled in doing so, the board violated the shoreland ordinance. "It's a statewide issue," said county attorney Don Dearstyne.

Hubbard County cracked the 20,000 mark. The 2010 Census shows a population of 20,428. That's 2,200 more people than the 2000 census, which measured the county at 18,376, and considerably more than the 14,939 counted in 1990. It is considered an 11.2 percent rate of growth from the millennium. The county has 6.4 percent minority population.

Hubbard County's K-9 officer has been placed on administrative leave. The Hubbard County Board of Commissioners met behind closed doors Wednesday to decide Jeremiah Johnson's future in the department. No details were released at the time. County officials have been tight-lipped about the matter, as they are with personnel issues. Johnson, 33, and a jailer/disatcher are currently under investigation by the Becker County Sheriff's Department for some unspecified financial reasons.

Emergency personnel responded to what they say is one of the saddest accident scenes they've been to lately. An elderly Nevis resident suffered an apparent heart attack as he was heading north out of town on County Road 2. He appeared to have died instantly, ambulance personnel said. Thursday he was identified as Bud Kelsey. His daughter Wendy Holsapple said he turned 78 in December.

A roomful of gravel pit operators spoke to the Hubbard County Board Monday to urge it not to impose regulations on a struggling sector of the economy. The board, in an open work session, took up the issue of whether to regulate the hours of operation of gravel pits after receiving a complaint last summer from a resident bothered by noise from a continuous crushing operation near Kabekona corner, the site of several pits. Gravel pit owners and operators universally said more regulations could kill the business when Minnesota construction seasons are too short to allow operators to even bid

Establishing a post-secondary education program in Park Rapids is gaining momentum as fundraising and enrollment campaigns begin for a fall semester at M State. Classes likely would be held in the Frank White Education Center and a possibility of eight fall classes could be offered if enrollment can reach 15 students per class in: n College Writing I n Power & Communications in Human Relations n Intro to Computer n Financial Accounting I n Customer Service n Intro to Business n Business Communications n Intro to Psychology. But those are just among the possibilities M State

The Park Rapids City Council, in a three-minute public hearing at which no one spoke, approved modifications to the Tax Increment Financing District for the Armory Square project Tuesday noon. In conjunction with that approval, the council, after months of negotiation and discussion, entered a redevelopment agreement with Echopoint Design & Development LLC, the company Alan Zemek has formed to oversee the project. If all goes as planned, a charming sidewalk seating area for dining should grace the building's premier corner by June as part of the first phase of construction. Park Rapids r